I am an Air Force brat, a self-taught artist, and a part-time mom these days. I work out my artistic demons by making stuff and trying to find the humor when things go wrong. I have a spouse, two grown kids and cats that barf and bring horrible things into the house, so things do go wrong. My youngest is in college and only home during breaks, so I'm almost an empty nester, alone more than not and trying to figure out this new stage of life. Time to make a mess.

September 4, 2011

Today I took my husband to see the Tim Burton exhibit in Los Angeles. This is a photo of a banner featuring "Stainboy" on the posts outside the museum. I saw the exhibit earlier in the summer, but enjoyed it again just as much as the first time. The sheer volume of his sketches and doodles are enough to make me think about how much better my art would be and how many more ideas I'd remember if I sketched and doodled every day. Clearly I need to follow through on the notion of carrying a small sketch pad in my purse.

The skies have suddenly and unexpectedly turned gloomy and grey, making it too dark for me to work on painting the rocking chair. Instead, I turned to blog surfing. Once again, my mind zips from one thought to another, inspired by the mass of prolific bloggers willing to share what they do, with the sheer volume of work produced filling my head with ideas about new things I want to try. I'm back at having too many ideas in my head, my brain wandering so much that I get nothing accomplished. Time to drag out the sketch book, jot down the ideas, doodle some visual reminders of new ideas and actually move ahead with making art.

In the meantime, our charming adult daughter has some new challenges in life that will have my studio functioning as a guest room a few days a week for quite a while. Planning my work time is going to become even more crucial now that I will be sharing the space. The trade off is worth it; I will have more time with my daughter. Our little family is back to four in the house these few days a week, and we're enjoying having fun family dinners at the actual dinner table in the actual dining room instead of the usual three of us lumping around the coffee table in front of a television during dinner. Silver linings abound.

About Me

I would rather be funny than thin (I am), and I would rather be charitable of heart than beautiful (I am), but wouldn't complain if I were offered the thin and beautiful too! Creativity is something with which I struggle, either because my mind goes a mile and minute and I have a hard time focusing, or because I'm being pulled too many directions and distracted with real life. I blog to help me focus on creativity or just to work out my demons.